Yamamoto Tsunetomo

26May

“Negligence is an extreme thing.”

– from ‘Hagakure – The Book of the Samurai’ – trans. William Scott Wilson (Kodansha Int’l Ltd, first edn, 1979)

Of all the fine words that I have read in my life, this one sentence indelibly engraved itself into my memory upon my first reading. The very essence of efficiency and insight presented in simplicity, this reduction of a plethora of complex states, excuses and motivations to just five words still makes me shake my head and smile in awe.